December 21, 2008Sandy Creek Park, GA
"Whoa", along with "come" and "heel", is the most important command a bird dog needs to know. Of course, even if we never go hunting, any of these commands could come in handy in many situations. "Whoa" basically means "stop and don't move until I release you". I started teaching this at home by making her hold a "whoa" before each meal, then utilized and practiced this command when taking photos. We have now progressed to working with distractions and temptations; here, I tossed her Orbee ball, but she did not break the whoa. I even had plenty of time to take a few photos of her, until I released her by telling her to "fetch".It may look impressive but we are still a looooong way from where we need to be. Ultimately, she will need to come to a dead stop and stand still like that in the field, even if in pursuit of prey, with 100% reliabilty and no matter how far out she is, and that requires much more complex training setups.
The sit-stay on the other hand is easy to teach. First off, Tessa needs to sit before she gets what she wants: a meal, a treat, permission to come up on the bed, etc. It is also our counter-command (no pun intended) when she counter-surfs - she knows the meaning of "off" and I use it, but I found it more effective to replace the action of jumping with the action of sitting politely, especially while I am preparing her meal, probably because once a dog sits, it requires one extra step (getting up from a sit to a stand) to jump. It is especially effective if she is asked to sit just as she is about to jump. An unfortunate side-effect is that too much sit-stay takes away from the "whoa", so I make sure that doesn't get put on the back burner.
Now that she is approaching 6 months old, it is time to increase the pressure during training, by increasing duration and distance and introducing temptations and distractions. In the photo below, she sits in the far distance while I walk around the field.
Of course, there are plenty of rewards for a job well done.
The sit-stay on the other hand is easy to teach. First off, Tessa needs to sit before she gets what she wants: a meal, a treat, permission to come up on the bed, etc. It is also our counter-command (no pun intended) when she counter-surfs - she knows the meaning of "off" and I use it, but I found it more effective to replace the action of jumping with the action of sitting politely, especially while I am preparing her meal, probably because once a dog sits, it requires one extra step (getting up from a sit to a stand) to jump. It is especially effective if she is asked to sit just as she is about to jump. An unfortunate side-effect is that too much sit-stay takes away from the "whoa", so I make sure that doesn't get put on the back burner.Now that she is approaching 6 months old, it is time to increase the pressure during training, by increasing duration and distance and introducing temptations and distractions. In the photo below, she sits in the far distance while I walk around the field.
Of course, there are plenty of rewards for a job well done.
